In Memory Of John King

My Grandfather John King lived a LONG life. He died at the age of 100. He is my mother's father. I am grateful that my children knew him and will remember him.

Grandpa served a long time in the US Navy.

It was rainy today. It rained the whole drive over to the cemetery. As we pulled into Camp Williams, the rained stopped.

Connor (in the green coat), along with my cousins, and brother were pallbearers. What a great thing for my son to remember.

The navy ceremony was wonderful. With the guns going off, so great.

The most touching, tender moment of the day.

Lots of family gathered together for lunch at my mother's house. It was a nice day. Grandpa lived a wonderful life. So grateful for the Plan Of Salvation. Grandpa is not a member of the church. I am excited to go to the temple in a year with my mom, uncle, and (someone else chosen as proxy) to seal them all together as a family.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Pumpkin patch. Clover was looking for the littlest pumpkin.

She found it.

Zombies are all the rage this year.

Clover the candycorn witch. She has been wearing her costume for a month now.

LOOK!!!! Can you believe NO COAT ON?????? This is the first year it is warm on Halloween night!

Connor with his friend trick or treating.

Shelby with her group of friends, ready to head on out for the night.

ME!!!! (if the broom fits, ride it)

My Love Of Spray Paint

Over the summer I took a Facebook break....BUT I then discovered something else to replace it... PINTEREST! Pinterest got me really interested into repurposing old into something beautiful for my home. So every yard sale I hit and every thrift store that I go to, my whole thought process is "WHAT CAN I FIND TO REPURPOSE" (and most of the time means SPRAY PAINT).

I am in the middle of a basement overhaul. I have dark walls and rustic colors. I am going for a more light theme, adding in blues. I have not painted my walls yet, they will be done by the end of this month. They will be painted a very pale color. Today I found this coffee table at DI for $10.00. I painted it this turquoise.

Found this lamp for $3.00, spray painted it the same color as the table, and added this shade that I had. I have this great chair, but it is red. I'm not getting rid of it, so the shade of the lamp pulls it together. The mirror behind it, I found for $5.00...and yes it got repurposed with some paint.

I found this quilt rack for $5.00...and that got a nice white.

I found this wall decor for 1.00. It was gold. Sprayed it white and touched it up with some antique glaze.

Here is that mirror.

I found this scale at a yard sale this summer for $1.00. It was army green. I saw on Pinterest a scale in a bathroom...I just had to have one in mine.

I found this metal basket and gave it a quick spray....so cute with a old jar to hold toothbrushes.

I found this tin wall decor at a yard sale, it was red.

Mason's 15 Minutes Of Fame

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TJsOTFpX8Y

Mason was asked to film a commercial ad for the training gym that our family attends. Our whole family at one time or another has signed up here for personal training. Here is the link to watch Mason in his ad!!!

Dirty Runs Dun Dirt Cheap

I did it, I did it, I did it!!! I RAN A 10K . THE DIRTY DASH ...I was not planning on doing the 10k, I was planning on doing the 5k...but when we got to the end of the 5k part I decided I could keep going. Mason was so sweet the whole way. He held onto my hand many parts, pulled me up steep hills, was so very patient and kept telling me how proud he was of me.

Our decked out van for the day.

OH YAH!!!! Feeling so very dirty.

We had a big team, this was only half.

LOTS of fun things to do on this bootcamp style coarse. Here are the ropes. We had to go over walls, under walls, through a cow poo bog of water a half mile long, through snow blowing machines, and down a huge slip n slide.

At the end here was a huge pit of mud.

It was hard, and so very fun!

Mason's brother Ian got to come join our team, it was great to have him there. He is on the left.

My crazy dirty husband (the only time I can really get away with saying that one!)

Arrow Of Light

Connor had his birthday a few weeks ago. He turned 11 years old. He graduated from Weblos in cub scouts, and now gets to be a Boy Scout! He earned the high honor, his Arrow Of Light badge.

Here is his special ceremony, where he and the other boy leaving scouts got to participate in. Here they are reading different jars of liquid that are labled with different attibutes of a scout. They dump the liquid into their bottle rocket.

Then outside Connor got to shoot his rocket. That thing went pretty far up too!

Small Update

My "lifestyle change" has been going better than I had ever dreamed it could. I have continued to run everyday. The most I ran in one day was 6 miles. I am doing the Dirty Dash this Saturday. It is a mud-run...10k with a 5k option. I am doing the 5k with Mason. So, we are bringing the kids up to the race. I'll give Shelby the camera and maybe some interesting pictures will turn up. This race is a bootcamp style race in the mud. I am very excited and very nervous.
So stayed tuned for an update on the race next week!

Boating

A couple guys from Mason's work took a bunch of people out on the lake. It was a school day, so Shelby and Connor are missing here.

Clover had fun playing on the beach, eatting the BBQ, and getting on the boat.

She loved watching dad and mom having a pathetic time out on the water.

Mason wakeboarded....

...but didn't have much success at all.

So he had more fun just being pulled (like me). Oh, and do you ask where are all the pictures of me??? Well, I asked the same thing after I got back in the boat, Mason told me he just couldn't hold Clover and take pictures at the same time. Really, I got a ton of shots doing it with Clover on my lap. Oh well, I always am amazed how men have a hard time muli-tasking.

We even took Clover out on the water....and before you call child protective services, we went at a snail's pace.

and yes, this is us going FULL speed with her. She didn't want to get out. So when she did get back in the boat, the dude at the wheel decided to really whip some girls around in the raft. AROUND AND AROUND we went...and that is when Clover decided to upchuck her hamburger and watermelon right down the front of ME.

Time For A Change

I have never been athletic in any way my entire life. My whole life I had been small and never felt the need to exercise. I never ever understood how people could enjoy the pain of it all. Many times over the years I tried to get myself interested in exercise, but always failed in the end.





As I am getting middle aged, my metabolism is slowing dramaticlly. I have also at the same time felt the need to do something personally, to strive to do better, strive to an accomplishment. Everyone knows that my husband is a runner, and yes he was always begging me to take it up. With some pushing on his end, I decided this might be something I am ready to do.





I invested in a nice pair of running shoes and gear, and took my first run. I went 2 miles. It sucked bad! "this is why I don't do this" I thought. I hired a personal trainer. She taught me correct form and how to land correctly on my feet. I told her how much I HATED running. She told me to give it 4 weeks. After 4 weeks you will start to enjoy it more.





It has been 2 months. I have ran every single day (except on Sundays of course). I am proud to say I am enjoying it!





Now with school in, I have to make sure i go before school starts...because of Clover.





My goal is to do a 5k in the spring and eventually do a race with Mason sometime in the future (far future).